Tell Law Firm King & Spalding: Don't Defend Bigotry Against LGBT People

King & Spalding is a major international law firm, with offices in more than a dozen cities around the globe. They proudly claim on their website that diversity is a major priority at the firm, and they single out LGBT issues on their website, saying that they value the contributions of LGBT employees and LGBT clients.

Paul Clement, a partner with King & Spalding, has been tapped by Rep. Boehner to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- a law that bars LGBT people in the United States from having their relationships recognized. This discriminatory law prevents LGBT couples from sharing in more than 1,100 benefits that straight married couples are able to access, and is also responsible for tearing binational couples apart. Is this type of blatant and unjust discrimination something that King & Spalding wants their name attached to?

History doesn't look kindly on law firms that defend bigoted laws. Does King & Spalding want to go down in history as the law firm that tried to keep LGBT people second class citizens in this country?

Demand that King & Spalding's Diversity Committee respond to Clement's decision to defend DOMA. They should condemn this decision, and in every way try to disassociate themselves from supporting such an immoral, unjust, and discriminatory law.

Letter to

Diversity Committee memberRalph Levy

Diversity Committee memberMason Stephenson

Diversity Committee memberAna Lesce

and 18 others

Diversity Committee memberSteven Jones

Diversity Committee memberEmily Leung

Diversity Committee memberRobert Woo

Diversity Committee memberLisa Keyes

Diversity Committee memberMargaret Brivanlou

Diversity Committee memberJennifer Fox Crisp

Diversity Committee memberCaroline Abney

Diversity Committee memberChris Jackson

Diversity Committee ChairSamuel Matchett

Diversity Committee memberCatherine O'Neil

Diversity Committee memberRichard Cirillo

Diversity Committee memberAlan Dial

Diversity Committee memberAnne Cox

Diversity Committee memberTracie Renfroe

Diversity Committee memberJosh O'Harra

Diversity Committee memberMichael Egan

Diversity Committee memberGraciela Rodriguez

Diversity Committee memberJaron Brown

I am deeply saddened and upset to learn that a partner with King & Spalding, Paul Clement, has signed on to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court. This piece of legislation has, for fifteen years, kept LGBT Americans second class citizens, denying them over 1,100 benefits that heterosexual married couples receive in the United States. Even worse, DOMA is directly responsible for forcibly separating binational couples in the United States, breaking and tearing apart families.

What saddens me most is that I always thought of King & Spalding as a place where diversity, and a commitment to the dignity of LGBT people, was tantamount. On your website (http://www.kslaw.com/About-Us/Diversity/Diversity-Committee) you list so many positive steps your firm has taken to show how you value LGBT employees and clients. Yet with this news, that a senior partner in your firm has taken up the cause of defending discrimination against LGBT Americans, your reputation in my eyes has suffered.

Does King & Spalding really want to be the law firm associated with defending DOMA? When history books are written, does King & Spalding want to have their name down on the side of a law that discriminates viciously and openly against LGBT Americans?

This news is upsetting. I hope your diversity committee will make an effort to convince Mr. Clement not to take this case, and that your firm will choose not to make money off of a law that keeps gay and lesbian Americans second class citizens.